Historically, operating systems have communicated network status and associated system settings with the network adapters in the computer. For example, the system would report that “Local Area Connection 1” or “Wireless Connection 1” is connected, and firewall settings could be set per-adapter. Network adapter types are a complicated concept and require users to understand networking concepts in order to understand status. In addition, as the number of network adapter types increases, it becomes increasingly likely that a computer will connect to the same network over multiple adapters. Moreover, a network adapter is likely to be used to connect to multiple networks, and system settings that are appropriate from one network may not be correct for another network. Typical users care about what they are connected to, not how they are connected, and many system settings should be based upon the network to which the computer is connected, not how they are connected.